Hunters had been anticipating the beginning of the 2017 Georgia turkey season and it finally began on Saturday, March 25 and runs through May 14. The Georgia Wildlife Resources Division (GWRD) says that the 2017 turkey season will be better than 2016 which was only rated fair.

“Reproduction in 2016 was the best we have seen since 2011, so I am hopeful we can build on that recent success and expect and expect 2017 to be a better hunting season,” says Kevin Lowery, Georgia Wildlife Resources Division wild turkey project coordinator. “Turkey hunters also need to remember the Georgia Game Check requirement for all harvested birds.”

The GWRD projects that turkey hunting in Piedmont Region which includes Baldwin, Putnam, Green, Morgan and Jones counties will only be fair this hunting season. A bad hatch in 2015 may result in fewer 2-year-old gobblers this spring in the Piedmont Region.

The turkey restoration efforts in Georgia have been a great success. Georgia’s turkey population currently is approximately 300,000 and back in 1973 the population was only 17,000. Much of that success is due to the work of the Georgia chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF).

The Georgia chapter of the NWTF has donated more than $3.7 million since 1985 and those funds have been used to benefit wild turkey and other wildlife. They work in partnership with the GWRD and other land management agencies to improve habitat, hunter access, wild turkey research and education.

Nationally the turkey population reached a high mark of 6.7 million birds. That high mark has now declined to between 6 and 6.2 million birds. The decline is being monitored to see if the decline is long-term. Some possible reasons for the decline are loss of habitat due to lack of proper land management, and nest predators like raccoons and opossums which are more of a threat than coyotes and crows to nest sites.

The number of turkey hunters in Georgia has declined slightly after peaking at over 60,000 in 2013. Last year there were over 52,000 turkey hunters in Georgia. Turkey harvest numbers have also decreased to 26,000 last year compared to the over 35,000 in 2013. The average number of poults per turkey hen in Georgia in 2015 was 1.4 but in the Piedmont region the average was only 1.2 poults per hen. Those numbers are well below the numbers in the 1980s and 1990s.

Many things impact a hunter’s ability to harvest a turkey. The most dreaded thing that happens when hunting turkeys is when the gobblers turn silent. Why do turkeys gobble on some days and not on others? Higher turkey populations especially when there are high numbers of 2-year olds results in more gobbling. High populations do not always point to more gobbling however. Turkeys just do not gobble on some days.

Weather plays an important part in turkeys becoming silent. A wind velocity above 6 mph will shut down gobbling. A temperature above 70 degrees also slows gobbling activity. The upcoming weather forecast is for warm temperatures well into the 80s. Habitat and nesting activity can also impact gobbling. Most hunters pay little attention to these factors and figure that their best chance to harvest a turkey is to be in the woods hunting regardless of external factors.

There is one requirement for turkey hunters that began in 2016 and continues this hunting season. All turkey hunters including those less than 16 years of age, landowners, honorary, lifetime and sportsman license holders, must obtain a free harvest record. Before moving a harvested turkey, hunters are required to immediately enter the date and county on the harvest record and within 72 hours must complete the reporting process through Georgia Game Check. For additional information about this new requirement, go to  HYPERLINK “http://www.georgiawildlife.com/HarvestRecordGeorgiaGameCheck” www.georgiawildlife.com/HarvestRecordGeorgiaGameCheck.

“Hunters should know that each time they purchase a license or equipment used to hunt turkeys, such as shotguns and ammunition, that they are part of this greater conservation effort for wildlife in Georgia,” said Lowery. “Through the Wildlife Restoration Program, a portion of the money spent comes back to states and is put back into on-the-ground type efforts such as habitat management and research and management.”

The spring turkey season and the spring spawning season on area lakes always happens about the same time but there is no reason you cannot combine both turkey hunting with some fishing. Good hunting and fishing and see you next week.